Most television viewers now receive their television signals through a content aggregator such as a cable or satellite television provider. For subscribers to a direct broadcast satellite (DBS) service, for example, television programming is received via a broadcast that is sent via a satellite to an antenna that is generally located on the exterior of a home or other structure. Other customers receive television programming through a cable, wireless or other medium. Programming is typically received at a receiver such as a “set top box” (STB) that demodulates the received signals and that converts the demodulated content into a format that can be presented to the viewer on a television or other display. In addition to traditionally-received television content, viewers also commonly enjoy media content that is provided from a digital video recorder (DVR), a DVD/Blu-Ray or other removable media player, a network source of streaming media, and/or any number of other sources. The capability to render such media content may be incorporated within a STB or other receiver device, and/or may be provided by any number of other standalone-type devices.
More recently, consumers have expressed significant interest in “place shifting” devices that allow viewing of television or other media content at locations other than their primary television set. Place shifting devices typically packetize media content that can be transmitted over a local or wide area network to a portable computer, mobile phone, personal digital assistant or other remote device capable of playing back the packetized media stream for the viewer. Placeshifting therefore allows consumers to view their media content from remote locations such as hotel rooms, offices, or any other locations where media player devices can gain access to a wireless or other communications network.
Although many different types of STBs, DVRs, disk players and other media host devices are widely deployed around the world, the vast majority of these devices do not presently support placeshifting functionality. Moreover, many host devices lack the desired processing capability to effectively transcode media streams into formats suitable for placeshifting and other purposes. Still further, the inherently insecure nature of digital communications (particularly over public networks such as the Internet) can create challenges in ensuring that only authorized users and players are allowed access to valuable media content that may be transmitted during a placeshifting session.
It is therefore desirable to create systems, devices and methods for allowing STBs, DVRs and/or other media host devices to effectively transcode media data and/or to securely placeshift media content from the host device to a remote media player. These and other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background section.